The period from conception to two is about the development of a baby's emotional capacities. Mum saying, 'Oh, darling, I love you,' and singing baby songs and pulling faces literally stimulates the synapses in the brain.

What I think we should be doing is refocusing all the prevention budgets, all the money spent on teen gangs and young offenders, on conception to age two at a rate of 2% a year.

If you're left to scream and scream day after day, your levels of cortisol remain high, and you develop a slight immunity to your own stress, so what you find is babies who have been neglected tend to become risk-takers.

Andrea Leadsom Quotes